The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-06-02
ALL ABOUT BOOMS.
THE COUNTERFEIT AND THE
| GENUINE ARTICLE.

THE COUNTERFEIT AND THE /
GENUINE ARTICLE.
The Part the Papers Take in the Crea-
ton of Booms, and tho Necessity Of !
Cooperation from the Citizens.
1t has been our good fortune to Pc
ruse couple of good articles recently
on the subject of booms, which voice
our own viws SO accurately we wish
to give xtracts from each.
The Lynchburg Nescs, after COM
menting on the fact that great deal
has been written of late about booms,
says, that a genuine boom is, of course,
an occasion for devout thanksgiving
and rejoicing. But the inevitable re-
action against fictitious and counter
felt booms is, on the other hand, the
certain occasion of serious setback
to the progress and prosperity of any
community. Now the newspapers
have their part to play in setting for
ward and sustaining booms. Their
function is to display in attractive
colors the actual business advantages
and inducements, to inspire confidence
and courage, and by every possible
appeal to the pride and pockets of the
business community to blow into
blaze the dull and dying embers until
presently they kindle a confagration
that attracts from far and near copious
capital and eager enterprise to build
as by enchantment great cities and
centres of commerce. That is the part
assigned to the papers in arranging
the dramatis personae.
But capital and enterprise will not,
for all the blowing and blazing of
newspapers, come from far and near,
to build up cities unless there is actual
CO, operation on the part of the peo
pie who are to receive the benefit. As
long as home capital is boarded with
miserly caution behind the reluctant
locks of bank safes; as long as the
business men of community show by
such actions as speak louder than
words that they have no real faith in
their own future, and without the
pride and spirit to risk their own
money in the schemes they commend
to others-as long. we say, as this ap-
athletic AID abject spirit and policy
characterize the capitalists of COM
munity it is sheer folly and infatuation
to attempt to inspire confidence in
alien and uninterested capitalists. In
vain shall we cry to Jupiter for help
unless we put our shoulders to the
wheel. The proverb goes that "the
gods help those who help themselves; )"
and though capital is not in the main
particularly godly it neverless, in this
attribute, strongly resembles :" the
gods"
The papers of this city are, in this
respect, like the papers Of all other
cities. Papers can only make the wind
that fills the sails. But all the wind
in the world will not speed the vessel
on its course unless the captain and
his crew unfurl the sails. But when
the ship is properly manned and rig
ged and righted for the voyage, the
captain cool and courageous and a
steady hand upon the helm-then it is
that the breeze which fills the bellyine
sails sends the. bounding bark "o'el
the glad waters of the dark blue sea.
The Cincinnati Graphic Neaos, Che
Harpe,''s Weekly of the West, in /
sensible article says that to bring life
into q city is an art, and not the pro
! dict of nature for, let city simply
rely upon its natural advantages, letthe
pub1is spirited citizens grow silent, ane
stagnati on of the worst kind will Sc
in. We are induced to indulge IL
these reflections by the example which
some of the tsghboring cities, Of Jesse,
Importance ara lesser advantages are
setting us, and e great results they
are attaining. Lei rs look at Louis
Vile. With less ths.n3 one-half the
population Of Cincinnati that enter
prising city has laid ont a. summer
programme which bids fair to bring
about most substantial benefits 20 its
inhabitants. Two weeks ago the Deia-
ocratic State Convention met there
with its thousands of visitors, enjoying
| the proverbial hospitality of the